Well, I went to zero hour at my school, (at 7:30 am. School doesn't start till 8:30.) And as we were singing, I about got sick. Turns out I have a slight case of food poisoning. Good news for you all because you now get the newest chapter of my lovely story. Also, Joey's super-hero name, Shadow, belongs to XxNightfirexX, I just forgot to mention that in my last chapter.
Chapter 11
"Where do you think you're going?" The voice said, looking at Joey. As the figure walked into the light, you could tell that it was a girl. She looked very beautiful with blond hair and blue eyes. "Don't make me repeat my question. Where do you think you're going without giving your girlfriend a kiss?" She ran toward him and gave him a hug.
"What are you doing here, Claire? I thought that you said you moved to another country." By the looks of it, someone would think that they wouldn't let go of each other anytime soon.
"We did, but my mom said we need to see the Titans about something. We just got here. What are you doing at Titan's Tower?"
"Turns out my parents are Titans, Mari's parents are too." Claire looked very confused. "Wait, you haven't met Mari yet?" He looked around and tried to find Mari, though she was leaning up against the wall, about to leave. "She moved into town after you moved out." After finally seeing Mari right in front of him, he grabbed her and dragged her into the conversation. "Claire, this is Mari Grayson. Mari, this is Claire Markov, my girlfriend."
"It's very nice to meet you, Claire." Mari said holding out her hand.
"Nice to meet you, too. So what area did you move to? A rich girl like you probably moved really close to right here, right?"
"Actually I moved across the street from Joey others."
"Really? Huh, shocker. So you haven't been flirting with my boyfriend, have you?" They were walking down the stairs toward the main room. Joey and Mari's face paled.
"What? No. No, no, no. I have a boyfriend back home at Gotham. Speaking of which, I have to call him tomorrow. He has a big game."
The two girls and Joey kept talking all the way down as they went to the main room to get something to drink so they could talk some more. As they entered the door, all the adults were talking with two people. One was a woman that looked exactly like Claire, just older. The other was a man. He looked a little bit like Claire and the woman, just that his hair had a bit more orange in it. All of the adults' faces were variations of two expressions; Vic, Karen, Kori, and Rich all had a confused look, while Rachel and Gar looked almost angry.
"Hey Mom, I knew you had powers and all and was a super-hero at one time, but you used to live here?! I mean, the best place we lived at was our last house here, and that had just barely enough room fro the three of us!"
Joey looked at his mother and recognized that look on her face. "Um, do you want us to go, Mom?" Rachel just shook her head.
"I want you three to go wake up the others, except for Lilly. She has school tomorrow." Mari and Joey nodded.
"Come on, Claire. I think I may need help trying to wake up Elle," Mari said.
"Actually, I want to go with Joey, if that's alright with him." Joey nodded and they walked away, hand in hand.
Mari entered the room to wake Elle up.
"Hey Elle. Wake up." Mari shook Elle a little.
"No, don't make me dance, you evil monkey-ninjas!" Elle shouted in her sleep before rewrapping herself in her blanket and turning over on her side.
"Don't make me wake you up like I did this morning." Soon, Titan walked sleepily through the door. "Oh Titan, come here boy," Mari said with a big smile on her face. She grabbed her big dog and tried to put on Elle's bunk. "Man, Ti, you've got to lay off the doggie treats," Mari groaned, pushing him up. Titan, after much struggling, was on top of Elle. Soon, he was licking Elle's face.
"Huh, whoa! Get down, Titan! Titan jumped off the bunk, landed, and walked out the door. "What a way to wake up." Elle looked at the alarm clock and whined. "Why did you wake me up this early? It's not like we have school or anything."
"A girl named Claire is here with her mom, and I think her dad. But I don't want to ask." Mari went through her bag, looking for something. "I know I put them in here… ahah." Mari grabbed a sleek pair of sunglasses and put them on. "Come on. Your mom wanted you in there, I think. Are you okay? If you want, I can tell them that you weren't feeling good and you can go back to bed." Elle shook her head.
"I just always feel funny around Claire. I mean, I like her and all, but she tries too hard to get on my good side. I just don't know." Elle looked very serious, and that was what was scaring Mari. "Come on, I'm hungry. Do you think there's any tofu left?"
Mari couldn't help but laugh. They continued to talk and laugh when they entered the room. All of the adults were where they originally were at the table with Claire, Joey, and Kevin sitting on the couch.
"Elle, I haven't seen you in forever. How are you?"
"I'm great! How are you? Where do you live now? Do they have any good malls?" The two girls started laughing.
"So, what did you want us up for?" Mari asked, trying not to make eye contact with her parents.
"I want all of you to meet Terra. You three may already know her though, since you know her daughter." Rachel said with a confused look on her face.
"Actually, I never met Claire's boyfriend. It's nice to finally meet you," Terra said.
"It's nice to meet you too, Ms. Markov." Joey said, shacking Terra's hand
Looking over at Elle, Terra continued, "I think we've met once… Elle, right?"
"Yes. I spent the night at your house once. At least, until I got sick. It's nice to see you again," Elle said with a smile.
"That's Kevin and Mari. Now that we're done with introductions, what are you doing here?" Gar said, sounding aggravated. This scared even Rachel, but only temporarily.
"We nee help. See, we're still super-heroes, my brother and I." She pointed to the man standing next to her. "We were back in Russia, where I'm originally from, and I caught sight of smoke. I went to check to see what it was about. "She grabbed what looked like her old Titan communicator, but it was different. "I saw this and thought you would know what it was about." It began to play a video. Vic grabbed it and hooked it up so it would play on the big TV.
"Whoa," All of the kids mumbled. None of them had yet seen the TV and were all surprised.
The video played. There was a small village on fire. The man, who Terra had revealed as her brother, was levitating dirt onto the fire to try to stop the fire from spreading. Soon, Claire came in the picture, trying to help everyone get out safely. The camera was then turned, and the last thing that was seen was a streak of purple and an evil laugh that caused Kori and the others to gasp.
"So, I think you guys know who this is."
"Yes," Kori said. She turned toward her husband and the others. "Do you think she will come here?"
"I think that may be a safe bet," Vic said, looking ready to fight.
"Thanks for telling us. Anything else?" Gar spat out.
"Yeah. What's up with you tow's attitudes? I'm just trying to be nice and help! Look, I still can't remember all of my past, but I remember at one point we were friends!"
"What o you mean, you don't remember?" Richard asked suspiciously.
"My brother found me a few days after you did." She looked over at Gar. "He, of course, recognized me, but I didn't recognize him. He's been trying to help me remember things. I get little pieces that come to me every once in a while. Look, what did I do that was so bad that made you hate me this much?"
Rachel turned toward the kids. "Go to bed," she said through clenched teeth.
"Wait, you had us get up and now you want us to go back to bed? That's not cool," Elle continued.
"Listen to your mother. Now!" Gar yelled at Elle.
Elle was shocked at that her dad yelled at her. She ended up doing what she was told. She was then followed by Kevin, Joey, Claire, and Mari. As Mari walked out the room, she was trying to think about her stories. Terra, bad, forgetting? It had all sounded so familiar. Then it struck her like a ton of bricks.
"Um, can I grab a glass of water really quickly? I'm kind of thirsty."
"Hurry," her mother replied. She knew what Mari was about to do, but wasn't going to stop her, knowing she would do it any way.
She grabbed the glass of water, mumbled her good night's, and walked out the door. What surprised Mari was that Claire was right there.
"What are you doing? You almost gave me a heart attack," Mari fiercely whispered, not wanting to be heard by the adults.
"I was going to listen to what they were saying. I want to find out what my mom did that was so bad."
"Well, I think they gave me enough time to get out of hearing range." Mari dumped the water in a potted plant right by the door. She then put the glass to the door and listened through it. Claire just pushed her ear to the crack under the door.
"Look, I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry. We really need help."
Gar looked at her. "I'm not helping you. You think that by saying sorry, we're all going to forgive you? Well, I don't know about the others, but I'm not. I gave you my trust! We all did! And you betrayed us all, selling us out. You have to remember that, don't you? You're just pretending not to. You must remember Slade. You know, the guy you betrayed us for! Look, we can handle Blackfire on our own. We don't need you anymore. You had every chance to do the right thing. You chose what you did." Gar knocked over his chair as he got up and headed over to the leave. The two girls behind gasped and tried to run, but Claire's pant leg was stunk between the doors.
To their relief, Gar stopped as Terra spoke again. "Alright, you caught me; I do remember most of it. I thought if I acted like I didn't, you guys would treat me like it never happened. I guess, even if I really did forget, you would still treat me like this." Terra started walking toward Gar. "But she seemed really powerful, and we want to help. Please. . I've changed." Mari was helping Claire get unstuck when they heard Terra talk. They both stopped, went back to the positions they were at earlier, and listened.
"Please, trust me." Terra placed a hand on Gar, making Rachel want to crawl out of her skin.
"I'm married, Terra. To Rachel." He picked up her hand and put it down. "The last time I saw you, you didn't remember any of this, yet now you do. How, why, just tell me." He walked over to his wife and wrapped his arms around her.
"Like I said earlier, my brother Brian found me. When he found out that I didn't remember him, he started trying to help me remember stuff. Like showing me how my powers worked again. And, when I was able to lift boulders and stuff like that again, more memories started to come. After a while, I had completely remembered everything. I wanted to try to find you guys, but I soon found out that you all disbanded. Brian had something to do back in Russia, so he left me here by myself for a while. So I stayed at an apartment uptown. Then I met Claire's father. One thing led to another, he dumped me, I had Claire, and we have been moving around since." Claire almost had a heart attack; she never heard anything about her father. Mari looked down at Claire and mouthed if she was okay. All Claire could do was nod her head.
The rest of the parents just wanted to know about Blackfire. Kori, Rachel, and Gar remained quiet the rest of the conversation for different reasons. Claire and Mari decided that it was late and that they really should get to bed. Mari told Claire that she could sleep with her and Elle for the night, until they cleaned more rooms. They walked in and saw that Elle wasn't in bed, but drawing I what looked like a sketch pad.
Mari crept up behind Elle and whispered, "What'cha doin'?" This caused Elle to jump and sit on the book.
"Nothing!" She turned to Claire and smiled. "So, has Mari given you our open invitation to stay in our room?"
"Yes. But where am I going to sleep?"
"Well, I was thinking," Elle said, hopping from her bunk and reaching for something under the bed. She grabbed a box of pizza. "No, this." a box that had different things in it that could be used for pranks, "Hmmm, I could use this," she mumbled, then she pulled out what looked like an ancient banana peel. It screamed at Elle and tried to bite her. Elle screamed back at it and dropped it. It crawled back under the bed. "That was weird." She turned toward the other two, who had jumped on the top bunk they were so scared of the peel monster. "Hold on, I think I found it." She pulled out an inflatable bed. "I thought that we would need this at some point." The rest of the night, the girls talked until they fell asleep.
The next morning was somewhat like the day before, except they were going to work on the obstacle course. The adults were going to go first. Richard went first, followed by Rachel, then Kori, Gar, Karen, and Vic who all did well. "Which one of you is going next?" Richard asked, looking at Terra and Brian.
"Really? Well, I guess I could go first." Terra said, sounding shocked. She went, doing all of her moves perfectly. She stopped afterwards and just stood there. Some of the adults couldn't help but let a small smile grace their face. While the parents went through the course, the kids were all sitting or stretching their muscles, watching their parents move and blast stuff. Well, all but Mari. She grabbed a book from Joey's bag and was reading it.
"So, Brian, it's your turn," Vic said, turning to the last person. "Do you know what to do?"
"Yes, but thank you for offering." Hearing him talk was a surprise to everyone; they didn't even know he spoke English, but he had a nice accent. He started off and the others got worried. He got off to a somewhat bad start, because his rock was busted by the blasts. He went through the entire course, though, actually doing batter then anyone.
"So, how'd I do for a beginner?" he asked as he came to a stop. Terra looked like she was going to bust with laughter.
"Really well, actually," Karen said, astonished. "Now I think it's the kids' turn. Which one of you wants to go first?" None of the kids raised their hands. Mari was about to when she saw a look on her dad's face. Claire looked around and decided that she could give it a go. Claire got up and stood at the starting line. She went through the course with ease, until she tripped and stumbled at the end.
The rest of the kids went on the beginner level and did pretty well. However, there was a small incident at the end that involved Elle, Kevin, his stingers, and the main computer.
"So, while Vic is trying to fix Kevin and Elle's little mess," Richard said, looking back at a crying Vic, while crying not to laugh, "You guys can do whatever you want." So all of the teens ran away as fast as they could. Mari, on the other hand, went to her mother.
"Hey, Mom? Can you take me back to the house? I have some stuff that I want to bring back here to the tower."
"Sure, but weren't you giving me the silent treatment?" Kori said as she walked her daughter through the tower.
"I was, but then I decided that you were on m side, so it's Dad who has to deal with my 'tude now. Hey, is it cool if I clean up another room and stay there? Elle's room is getting a little cramped with Claire staying here. I've already found a room. I found it while Dad was going through the obstacle course. Please?" She asked giving her mom "the look".
"Fine." They hit the end of the island. It took Kori a minute to remember that the car was parked back on the main land. "Grab my hand, Honey."
"Okay, but…" As she was about to finish her sentence, she noticed that her feet were no longer on ground, but dangling above the bay. "Don't let me go!" She closed her eyes tightly, holding tightly onto her mother for dear life. As soon as the flight was over, Kori released her daughter gently on the ground. "Don't ever do that again without telling me I hate flying." She started lecturing her mom on the way to the car.
At their house, Mari ran down to the basement and grabbed some of the boxes they used for moving. Up in her room, Mari grabbed some new, clean clothes, more sunglasses, pictures, her address book, her laptop, and a guitar shaped case. She also grabbed things like the vacuum cleaner and other cleaning things. As she put a box full of the things in the back seat, she remembered something and ran back into grab her cell phone charger.
Back at the Tower, everyone was in the main room getting something for lunch. It took a while for someone to realize that Mari and Kori were gone. As soon as the rest of the Titans started trying to figure out where the two girls were, Mari and Kori walked through the door. Kori went over to her husband and kissed him on the cheek. Mari, on the other hand, put down the box and went toward the refrigerator.
"Hey, Mare-Bear, where were you guys at?" He got a "Humph" I return. "Did you just humph me, young lady? You did not just humph your father! Kori, did you hear her do that to me?" His wife answered the same as her daughter-- with a humph. Mari started to walk out of the room, soda in one hand, ox of random stuff in another.
"So, Mari what room did you pick?" Kori asked.
"I don't know, I was wandering around and just found the room. I had a really nice view of the ocean." Mari walked out of the door, but walked back in again immediately. "Um, do you guys want to help me set up my room? I may need some help with cleaning it and getting it the way that I want it." The others nodded and went to help. Joey even offered to carry the box for Mari. She was about to decline the offer when Mari's phone went off. Again, she was surprised by the shouting voice of the ring. It took a while for her to find the pocket she had her phone in.
"Hello?… Cam, is it you? … Sweetie, I need you to calm down. I can't understand a word you're saying….Cam… Cam… CAMEILE RODRIGUEZ! CALM DOWN!…Are you cam?… Now, what's wrong?… What?… Why?… Is she okay?… Okay, call me later. Bye." Everything that was in Mari's hands fell to the ground. Her cell phone was ruined, since it fell first and the soda spilled on top of it. "I need to get to Gotham," she said to no one in particular. She looked at her dad and repeated, "I need to get to Gotham. Now." She was starting to cry really hard. "Ivy's in the hospital. Cam said a neighbor called in that they heard a large thud from Ivy's apartment. The police came and found her beaten half to death." By now she was completely crying, and almost unable to stand. "I need to go see her now!"
"I'm sorry, Honey, but you can't even if we did start driving, you wouldn't get there until tomorrow at least," Richard said to his daughter.
"What?! My friend id hurt and I need to be there for her. This doesn't surprise me. If it was one of them," --she pointed toward the other adults who were standing shock of hearing all of this -- "you would have been there before you got the call." She shook her head and walked out. "I hate this." was the last thing they heard from her before she locked herself in her new room.
Later that night, Kori went in to check on her child. Mari always took after her when it came to caring for her friends. "Mari, Sweetheart? Are you okay? Know how you feel, but you need to come out and get something to eat." When Kori didn't hear a reply, she got worried. She opened Mari's door using the new access code. When she got inside, she saw that no one was there. Since Mari never came back for her box, the room was exactly the same, which is how Kori recognized it as Robin's old room. She looked around the room and saw what she was really scared of: a note from Mari. "Richard!"
"Look, Buddy, I just need one ticket to Gotham! I have a debit card, now please! One ticket. Just one." Mari was pleading with a man behind a glass window.
"Sorry Miss, but we don't accept debit. Now, we do except cash, credit, and checks. The next train leaves in ten minutes, so if you want a ticket, then I advise that you do it quick."
Mari let out an aggravated scream. She had snuck out the tower, hacked the code for the underground passage way, and took a bus all the way to the train station. She didn't figure out that she didn't have any cash on her.
"Two tickets to Gotham," a voce behind her said. She didn't have to look around to know who it was. She turned around and buried her face in his shirt.
"Thank you Joey, but what are you doing here?"
"I'll explain on the train. Come on, it's about to leave."
